Banned & Challenged Books
Created by Stacy Kitsis. Last updated: January 10, 2024.
This page features resources to help you start thinking about book challenges, book bans, intellectual freedom, and censorship.
Understanding Key Terms
A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group.
A banning is the removal of those materials. Challenges do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others.
Censorship is a change in the access status of material, based on the content of the work and made by a governing authority or its representatives. Such changes include exclusion, restriction, removal, or age/grade level changes.
Intellectual freedom is the right of every individual to both seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction. It provides for free access to all expressions of ideas through which any and all sides of a question, cause or movement may be explored.
Source: Challenge Support (American Library Association)
Lists of Banned & Challenged Books
New books are banned and challenged all the time, but here are some great places to get started:
American Library Association
Field Report Archives (2004-2019)
PEN America
Banned in the USA: State Laws Supercharge Book Suppression in Schools
Banned in the USA: The Growing Movement to Censor Books in Schools
Blogs & Articles
Here are the Most Challenged Comics and Most Banned Comics Since 2000 (Book Riot)
Book Ban Efforts Spread Across the U.S. (New York Times, January 2022)
As Book Bans Target LGBTQ+ Writers and Writers of Color, Here’s What Banned Books We’re Reading (March 2022)
50 Banned Books to Read Now (While You Still Can) (Pretty Opinionated, January 2022)
Book "Ban" Reversed in North Attleborough (Boston.com)
Learn More: Books & E-Books
Books and e-books about book bans and challenges:
Learn More: Online Resources
Our research databases and newspaper subscriptions are a great source of more information about book bans and challenges:
Opposing Viewpoints in Context (Gale)
Opinion articles on both sides of today's "hottest social issues," don't miss their topic page devoted to Book Banning.
New York Times (Gale)
Full text of the New York Times from 1985 to the present.
Boston Globe (ProQuest)
Full text of The Boston Globe from 1980 to the present.
General OneFile (Gale)
Wide range of general interest magazines and newspapers.
Search Tips
Some tips for searching, whether you’re in Google or a library database.
Use quotation marks to find complete phrases, especially proper names and titles. For example:
“hunger games”
“the poet x”
“and tango makes three”
Combine keywords to get articles that match each of your important concepts. For example:
vonnegut AND banned
"harry potter" AND challenged
By adding the “AND” you are limiting your results to sources that include both of the terms. Get fancy with Boolean logic. For example:
flamer AND (banned OR challenged)
Target your Google search to specific domains by doing entering your search term followed by "site:[domain]". For example:
Check your spelling when you are searching. Sometimes a misspelled word prevents you from finding all of the resources you can!
Book Challenges in Arlington Public Schools
These current School Committee policies address selection and reconsideration of materials for Arlington Public Schools: